It’s a command to be on guard and stand firm in faith (1 Corinthians 16:13). NOW is the time to stand firm. It doesn’t matter if we started on fire; the end of the matter is better than the beginning.
(Ephesians 3:16) Life is unstable like a gym balance ball, but the ground under the balance ball of life is the solid Rock – Jesus. If we are in Christ, we are in stability.
(Matthew 7:24-27) Stand firm on God’s word and what He has told you until it comes to pass in your life because if we don’t stand on God’s promises, we will fall and crash (1 Timothy 1:18-19).
(1 Corinthians 16:13) Be a person of courage. Life is hard, but God is good. It takes courage to walk this walk of faith.
Don’t focus on the outside, but on the inside. Your spiritual muscle is growing within and will show without. Don’t allow the devil to discourage you. God is working even if it doesn’t look like it. The worse it looks like it is getting, the louder our praises should be.
When God wants to do the extraordinary, He makes the ordinary pass you by.
We have to remain consistent in obeying God, whether in secret or in the open, that is only when we will see the reward. (Joshua 1:8-9) Tell yourself, “I am strong and courageous. I refuse to be discouraged.”. Rise up and stand firm, and wait and see what God has for you at the end. Receive courage from the word of God and remain in it.
Stand firm in faith to be able to get to the finish line.
When God tells us to be strong, He is not talking of self-sufficiency. God is telling us:
(Psalm 19:7-11) Our faith comes from us staying in the word of God. We are sustained by a greater Power, God Himself. Only in God’s word will you find perfection while everywhere else you will find mistakes. Nothing will sustain you like the word of God. When we stay in faith, there is a greater reward.
God is releasing His sustaining and strengthening grace on us to continue to fight the good fight of faith so that in the end, He will be glorified in our lives.
PRAYER: Lord give me enlightenment and understanding (Psalm 119:130; Job 42:5)
(1 Corinthians 6:19) When you believe in the work of the cross, you have the Holy Spirit in you. You now belong to Christ, not to the enemy. The more you walk with the Holy Spirit, the more you know of Christ and the more you walk in freedom.
(1 John 2:27; Romans 8:11) You are anointed by God because of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you. You are God’s temple. You can now walk and manifest the work of God through the Holy Spirit. The more you surrender to the Holy Spirit, the more the works of the Holy Spirit are manifested in and through you.
God is supernatural, and if we want to walk in the realm of the supernatural, the more you need the power of the Holy Spirit. To be anointed means to be rubbed/smeared all over by the Holy Spirit. The world needs to see the power of the Holy Spirit. For us to tap into that reservoir of the power, we need to be in the presence of the Holy Spirit. The people around us can only be set free by the power of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts, so step out of your comfort zone.
Move from praying for more anointing, to functioning in the anointing that is already in you. God wants you to bring deliverance to the dark world around you. God’s children are to soar, not to walk defeated. Acknowledge the authority and power that God has given you.
God is greater than any storm that you face. Your victory is assured as you depend on God. What will anchor you is to get rooted in Christ (Philippians 1:21). It is not enough that you are anointed. The anointing that you have received is not only for you to walk in victory. It is also for people around you to see the glory of God. The purpose of God’s anointing in you will never be fulfilled until you walk in the mandate that God has for you.
(Luke 4:18) The more you stay comfortable as a child of God, the more the world around you is perishing. Jesus came to this earth because He had a mandate. The same is for us, if we want to fulfil God’s mandate for our lives, we need the Holy Spirit. God is calling us to get up, step out and give out this anointing, not only to those we like, but to everyone. Be faithful in the little that God has put inside of you and God will use what you have to bring deliverance.
To serve the Lord, you have to become uncomfortable. IT IS THE SEASON TO GO AND STEP OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE!
(Luke 24:79; 11:33; Acts 1:4,8; Acts 2:4; Matthew 28:19; Isaiah 60:1) The disciples patiently waited to receive power from the Holy Spirit after which they went out to carry out their divine mandate – the great commission. After you wait and receive the power from the Holy Spirit, don’t wait again, rise up and step out! Jump out of your comfort zone.
QUESTION: We speak of the generals of old and the great things they accomplished in Christ, but why aren’t people speaking about us?
Until we step out, the anointing will never flow. You may be prayerful and spending time with God and doing all acts of a holy life before God, but God wants us to add to these by stepping up and going out. Stop sitting on your gifts, they are not for you! They are meant for the body of Christ. The more you sit on the anointing, the more you deprive the body of Christ.
If you have heard from the Lord and stepped out, but you are facing some challenges, don’t be discouraged. Keep on going on. The moment you step out, the anointing opens doors for you. People may be in bondage, but the moment we speak about Christ, you will see the manifestation of the glory of God.
God’s anointing sets us apart for His use. God’s hand is on whatever He anoints. We have to rely on God’s anointing for transformation to take place. (John 7:38) The rivers of God in you should not be stagnant, they should be flowing. Though you may be afraid, take that step and go forward. The more you give out, the more you will receive.
(Luke 12:35; Matthew 25:1-30) You are a gun in God’s hand that He wants to fire to do His purpose. Disengage from that rest position and allow the anointing to flow through you. The enemy is not afraid of an anointed believer. He is afraid of a believer who allows the anointing to flow.
PRAYER: Lord wake us up from our slumber, from our laziness. It is my season to arise and shine! It is my season to step out from under the table to the top of the table so that when people come to me they will see God’s glory. It is my season to obey what God is calling me to do. The Spirit of God is delivering me from the spirit of slumber and I begin to serve the Lord. I receive the grace to be a bold witness of Christ. I receive the boldness and healing power to be who God has called me to be. Let the rivers in me flow out and touch others. The fire of the Holy Spirit is released on me to give me a new passion for God. Nothing will stop me from doing the work of God. God is always my priority. Every spirit holding me down and preventing me to do Your work, I come against it in Jesus name.
(Romans 8:31-38) Both Jesus and the Holy Spirit intercede for us. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. Sometimes we go through trials where we wonder if God truly loves us. When God shed His blood at Calvary, His love was deposited in my heart and as a child of God, I’m to continue walking in that love. Problems are real, but in the midst on them, there is a ground that we can stand on; a place that we can be anchored. Drop your anchor in the love of God, not in your situation or what has been said to you.
There is power in God’s love. There is a place that we can lean on and be driven by so that we don’t fall. The aim of the enemy is to derail you and distract you from God’s love. The moment you doubt God’s love, you begin to sink. The moment you are anchored on God’s love, there is a lifting up. Without the love of God, we will fail at everything. Get to the place where you constantly remind yourself, in the good and bad, that God loves you (Romans 5:5). The more you remind yourself of how much God loves you, the more you will believe that God loves you.
(1 Corinthians 13:30; Galatians 5:6) Faith is the arm that we stretch to receive what God has done for us, but faith works best in the presence of love. The foundation of faith is love. (1 John 4:16) The love of God is the substance of our faith. Faith fails to function where there is no love. (John 15:5) Without the love of God, you can do nothing.
PRAYER: Lord I need more of Your love
To have a fruitful life, be driven by God’s love. There is always a drive that fuels us to do what we do, whether good or bad. When we are tired, exhausted, discouraged, there should be a drive that reminds us what God did for us and encourages us to keep going and not give up on those around us. The love that God has for us should be our drive in ministry. We need to get to that place where we are totally dependent on God’s love without any distractions.
If your heart is fuelled by something, no matter what you go through, you will push to make it come to pass even when you fail. The moment you let go of that drive, everything stops. But is this drive from God? When your heart is fuelled by the heart of God, everything about you will go far. Don’t give up on all that concerns you; God’s love will sustain you and He has a great plan for you.
Mary and Martha had to go through a waiting season when Lazarus, whom Jesus loved, was dead. Jesus loved them even before Lazarus died and He loved them too in the waiting season. As you wait for your Lazarus to rise up, be anchored on God’s love. Stretch your hands towards God and be dependent on God’s love, then you will see the Lazarus in your life come to life.
(Revelation 2:1-7; Ephesians 3:15-19) There is something greater than what the Ephesus church was doing. Their roots were not established in God’s love, though they did all the great things for God. It is a must that we as children of God understand His love. We need to move beyond knowing to encountering the love of Christ, though it is in dimensions. Our aim is not to stop where we are but to continue pursuing God’s love. There is no life outside the love of God.
PRAYER: God gives us the grace and usher us in to a time of experiencing and encountering Your love
(Galatians 5:22) The fruit of the Spirit is held by love. Allow the river of love to flow through your heart. We adulterate God’s love with other things in our hearts when it should only be His love. This makes us lose passion for God. Perfect love casts out fear. Where there is fear it is because we have not been made perfect in love. Where there is pride, there is a lack of love. The more you walk with the Lord, the more you are humble.
PRAYER: Lord anchor me in Your love. Forgive me for adulterating my heart with other things (pride, worry, negativity, fear, anger, etc). Lord forgive me for relying on my own strength and putting You behind and saying ‘no’ to You. Any impediment that stands in the way to God’s love – these barriers – be removed in Jesus name! May I experience an encounter of Your love Lord. Thank You Jesus for covering me and shedding Your love into my heart, in Jesus name!
Children know what they love. Even in their sleep, they open their eyes at the slightest sound of a wrapper of candy being opened. Just as children, we should be running towards God with everything inside of us. We should be desperate for Him and take hold of what He has in store for you.
PRAYER: Lord I’m desperate and hungry for You. Even the crumbs under Your table, I am desperate for them.
(2 Corinthians 12:1-10) Sometimes we go through spiritual encounters that we can’t adequately explain. Paul kept His eyes on God regardless of the deep spiritual encounters that he had. We live in a world that encourages boasting in our strengths, and hates it when we boast about our weaknesses. When we boast in the flesh, we are fools (2 Corinthians 11:16-19). God’s power is made perfect in our weaknesses.
Our natural desire is to boast. Even when we apply for jobs, we focus on highlighting our strengths on our CVs. Testimonies glorify God in what He has done in our lives, but pride boasts and relies on self. God resists the proud, but gives grace to humble. (Revelation 3:14-17) We brag about everything. In the church, we compete on our gifts. But as we mature in the spirit, the more humble we become. You may have it all put together outwardly, but when God sees you, He sees you naked because of the result of pride in your life. Pride is self-dependent, but humility is saying, ‘God I’m nothing without You’. Pride is immaturity.
DAILY PRAYER: Lord keep me humble. If I choose to boast, let me boast only on what You are doing in my life
The more you grow/journey with God, the more of self is removed, the more you are dependent on God and His grace. The more you mature in the spirit, the more you realise that you can’t accomplish the things of the spirit with the flesh. To be fruitful in all areas, we need the Lord. It is one thing to say, ‘Lord give me more grace’ and another thing to say, ‘Lord, I want to be naked before You; I have nothing to offer’ (Exodus 33:15).
It is difficult to boast about the things we struggle with. Paul doesn’t mean that we brag about our weaknesses, instead he means that we should be open to God about our weaknesses. God allows ‘thorns on our flesh’ to sharpen everything in us. If we know that our weaknesses have purposes, it will make it easier for us to speak about them to God. Weaknesses make us humble so that we are not self-dependent, but dependent wholly on God.
PRAYER: Lord I know the weaknesses in my life have a purpose. Come into my life and begin the healing process.
Weaknesses are not only to humble us, but also that God’s power rests on us. Every time you are open about your weaknesses/challenges to God or to someone who has the mind of Christ, the more the power of God is released on you.
PRAYER: God, I cannot do it without You. I would rather fail doing it Your way than my way
We usually pray for more anointing and power, but God wants us to humble ourselves before Him; only then will His power be made perfect within us.
Social media is a deception. Someone portrays strength outwardly yet is weak on the inside. We are who we are only by the grace of God. When God looks at strength, we look at weakness. When we choose to say ‘yes’ to God, He turns our weakness into strength. When we choose to walk and do what God has asked us to do, we see God’s power made manifest in us.
PRAYER: Lord, this is my weakness. Lord I know Your grace is sufficient, so let me step into that domain of grace and experience Your power
If you are wise in the eyes of the world He does not choose you, but if you humble yourself before God, He makes His strength perfect in your weakness. The very thing God wants to do in your life is in you.
May the word of God go deep into our hearts so as to bear fruits within us.
Your heart’s condition is one of the most important things that God is looking at. Many times our motives towards seeking God’s heart are always directed towards the outward. God does not look at our outward appearance but the condition of our hearts – this is His desire. We look outward when the God we serve is looking inwardly.
When we tell God to take us deeper – that we want to encounter HIM – God instead wants to take us deeper into our hearts; He wants more of our hearts. The pathway to encountering God is to allow God to take more areas in your heart; surrender more of your heart to Him. God cares more about our hearts than any other thing. The more we seek God by surrendering our hearts to Him, the more He gives us more that we desire. The more you open yourself up to God, the more you will experience Him in mighty ways.
The more I surrender my inner man to God, the more I will experience Him in new dimensions like never before. Surrender is one of the most painful things to do. The more you lay down your heart, the more God goes into the areas of hurt and pain so as to bring healing. Until those areas are healed, we will never fully experience His fullness of grace and favour.
Just as exercise is good for the physical heart and overall wellbeing, so it is with your spiritual heart. If you want to grow more spiritually, focus more on God.
(Proverbs 4:23) our top most priority is to guard your heart because the direction of our lives – where we are today – is influenced by the condition of your heart. You guard everything you possess physically but of most importance to you should be to guard/shield/protect your heart. What we allow in our hearts has a way of affecting our hearts’ condition. The aim of the enemy is to dampen your heart so that you don’t experience God in full. What God is after, the enemy is after. The product of the heart is faith (Jeremiah 29:13; Matthew 22:37; Proverbs 3:5).
If we have ‘spiritual heart disease’, how can we seek and love God with all of our hearts? When we are defeated, always complaining and never walking in victory, it is because of our heart’s condition. Sometimes there are areas in your heart that you think are fully healed but God takes you through experiences that cause these areas to surface again for God to fully heal them.
There is something about the God we serve. You may come out of a storm, exhausted and bruised, but know that God’s grace and anointing is available to refresh you. Don’t reject the healing, though uncomfortable, else nothing will ever change. If God is concerned about the purity of your heart, He is concerned with the wholeness of your heart (Matthew 5:8). The thing that holds us back from experiencing God’s favour and love, from fully experiencing God, is the condition of our heart.
Scars in our hearts have a way of draining us and derailing us from God’s purpose for our life.
DECLARATION: I am ready today to deal with the issues of my heart.
(John 15:1-2) God is taking things out of our hearts so that we are more fruitful and look more like Christ. The only way to contact God is through your spirit so we need to have God cleanse us (Psalm 51:10). Don’t use your outward circumstance to judge your relationship with God, use the condition of your heart (1 Samuel 16:7). David was a man after God’s heart because he gave God his whole heart. He always allowed God to deal with his heart.
God does not want us to recoil back to our comfort zone. He wants us to face our Goliath and triumph. Sometimes we tell God that we have surrendered to Him, yet we are still looking for shortcuts to the healing.
DECLARATION: I would rather walk with God, believing Him and obeying Him, than run away from my fears.
The choice is ours. Either we surrender in obedience to God, no matter how painful, or allow the enemy to derail us (Proverbs 4:23; Psalm 139:23-24).
Love is expressive. When you love something, you need to speak well of the thing. God has been faithful; whether or not you have received from Him what you have been expecting. Some may have the money and opportunity to sustain themselves but do not have the grace of life. Thank God for the free gift of life; He alone ensures that you have it.
God’s extent of love gives us His best and is unconditional (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). By extension, God expects us, His children, to walk in love. Every family is known by a particular trait.
(1 John 4:7-21) If you truly love God as His child, it will be truly seen. God did not wait until we have been transformed before He loved us, therefore, we should not until our neighbour is lovable for us to love them. A neighbour may not necessarily be the person who treats you well. We should love our neighbours, good or bad, as we love ourselves. God offered us His best – His ONLY Son.
(John 13:34-35) When you live by love, all will know that we are God’s disciples – this is what differentiates us from other people. Are we good testimonies for the Kingdom of God?
(1 John 3:23; Ephesians 5:2) We should come back to the place of knowing why God called us – to love one another as He commands us. The unconditional love of God in us makes us an offering/sacrifice. The persecution of the world should not make us a different people, because we are children of God who stay true to our calling which is to love unconditionally.
(John 15:13) The love we are called to live by is not ordinary; if Jesus laid down His life, we should also lay down our lives. If we are not willing to lay down our lives for others, we have not arrived yet.
(Matthew 20:25-26) Those in the world like themselves to be known by their power and lord it over others, but in the Kingdom it is the reverse – leaders are servants. That’s why God submitted low and became man so that He could save us.
(Ephesians 5:24-25) As a church, are we truly submitting to Christ as our husband? The agape kind of love that God gives us, we should extend it to our neighbours. Things may not always be rosy, but in Christ we can love unconditionally as He loves.
(James 4:6) There is grace for the one who submits. Our lives must be a testimony to those around us by the love we are known for. The greater love of God calls us to lay low and be a servant.
MARITAL ADVICE: God honours Kingdom marriages for through them they raise Godly children to carry out His kingdom purpose. The word of God is the rock on which we build all our foundations including marriage. Manage flaws with love. Forgive quickly. Be content with what you have and don’t compare. Manage your marital expectations.